The question is: will this make me faster?

Friday - August 15

Run

21m

1.30 miles

16m 09s /Mi

MRI results: there is a small (6mm x 9mm) piece of the lateral meniscus that has torn off and found a new residence in the anterior joint space. This was not evident on the first MRI. The tear was near the lateral femoral condyle, which presents two possible scenarios: 1. the floater is just cartilage, or 2. there is a small bone fragment attached to the cartilage. In scenario 1, the procedure would simply be to remove the perpetrator. In scenario 2, where there is a piece of bone, he could re-attach the offending piece to the existing bone, and because bone heals to bone, it would grow back just as if nothing had happened. Theoretically.
I suppose this is good news. Honestly, this is what I was expecting, and it's really what I wanted to hear. I'm glad to know that there really is something physically wrong in the knee, and it can be fixed. It's been nearly a year of recurrent/chronic knee pain for me. So I'm just happy we can move on toward a solution. We'll talk one more time during the last week of August, and then plan to scope sometime after that.
Obviously, I won't be racing anymore this year. I'll keep biking and swimming up until the scope, assuming I can do so without pain, like I have been. Then after the procedure, I suppose there will be some rehab period, and then hopefully I'll be back good as new in 2009. I guess I can be happy that I got a top-20 finish at Papio with a torn meniscus.
The knee is a little sore today still, after the injection yesterday, so I'm taking today off. I did walk to work and back today, so that's something. :)

Thursday - August 14

MRI #2 today, this time, with contrast. Dr. Choi injected my knee with 40cc of lidocaine/saline/gadollinium. It's a little sore now. The second radiologist was Dr. Waddell.
Here was our exchange:
CW: Hey, Rob, how's it going?
RF: Pretty good, you?
CW: Good; what's new with you?
RF: Just my knee, it hurts whenever I run.
CW: Then don't run...
RF: Gee, thanks, "doc."
CW: That's what I'm here for!
It was good to see Chris. I hadn't seen him since he moved back from Chicago. Lindsay reads a lot of the peds stuff we do, but he said he's seen a lot of orders from Tyler. He was talking about possibly getting season tickets for Drake basketball this year.
Anyway, hopefully I'll know the results tomorrow, and then we can come up with a plan to deal with it.

Wednesday - August 13

Bike

2h 05m 57s

40.80 miles

19.44 Mi/hr

I had two options in mind for today's workout: 1. ride to the Bell Center for a swim and then ride back home, or 2. go for a long ride and skip the swim. I decided on option 2. I thought option 1 would be kind of cool, since I haven't done that before. The problem is I wasn't sure about the best way to get there, or exactly how far it would be.
So I went out and rode the route I thought would be best for getting to the Bell Center, so I can do this sometime in the future. It's about 7 miles from my house to the Neal Smith trail, which heads downtown. It was about 7.5 more miles to the access point near MLK Drive. It's about 3 more miles from there to Drake, for a total of 17.5 miles each way, by bike. Someday, that'll make for a nice B-S-B workout.
It was another great day for a ride. This was not a day to put the hammer down and try for PR's, it was a day to enjoy the scenery and have a nice workout. I turned around at the MLK access point and headed back north. Seeing how if I went straight home it would only give me about 29 miles, I went further north after I got back to Ankeny. Alleman is a very small town. It is the most recently incorporated town in Polk County (1973). Population 439. Median age is 37. Median household income of $66,458, which is higher than I would have guessed. Most impressively, there is a TV tower there that is tied for the 6th tallest structure in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_masts

Monday - August 11

Did anyone see the men's 4x100m freestyle finals last night? I stayed up watching because I knew it was supposed to be the biggest challenge to Michael (Ian) Phelps' quest for 8 golds. The French were actually heavy favorites.
If you haven't seen it, you can watch the whole thing including commentary on MSN.com today. The Australians take the early lead with a WR in the 100m on the opening split, in something like 47.2. The Americans take the lead on the second leg, and then the French take it on the 3rd leg. Alain Bernarnd, who had the 100m WR before the race began, swims the last leg for France. Jason Lezak swims the anchor for USA. Bernard was the guy who was talking trash about "smashing" the Americans in the final. Well, Bernard swam very well, but Lezak swam the race of his (or anyone's) life, closing in 46 flat. Splits are faster than opening legs and individual swims, but still...that's the WR fastest split.
He swam a perfect race, and I mention it here because I think we can all learn from it. On the first 50, he hugs the lane line to get a draft off of Bernard. He is able to maintain Bernard's pace, but presumably conserve energy by catching the draft. On the turn, he makes up about 3 feet on Bernard, moving from his ankles to his waist. And then in the last 25, he just steps on the gas. Watch the last leg...he swims so fast, he's starting to come out of the water. It reminds me of when a speedboat starts to hydroplane and lift its front end out of the water. I know he's not really doing that, but it's kind of cool to see the analogy. He really does lift himself out with each stroke, though, and I think that helps to speed him along as it's easier to move through air than water.
Anyway, it's just a great race, and it was fun to see us beat those Frenchie weenies. You could say I have a little more appreciation for the swimming, now that I know how hard it is and how fast these times are. I mean, I've always liked watching the swimming, but I can just appreciate it more now.

Sunday - August 10

Bike #1

1h 06m 22s

24.86 miles

22.48 Mi/hr

New PR by over 2 minutes. I started out hard like I planned to do, and I was able to maintain the intensity for the whole distance. I still think I could have ridden harder as my average HR was lower than on Friday. Even though I've ridden this distance many times, I'm still getting a feel for the ideal intensity. It was a great morning for a bike ride - 65 degrees and a light wind from the NE.